


Somewhere (somewhere in the woods)

by Neelh



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Cipher Hunt, Gen, Past Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Stangst, i think? i'm not sure what i wrote, it's four am, that's it i guess?, um
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-27
Updated: 2016-07-27
Packaged: 2018-07-27 01:06:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7597354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neelh/pseuds/Neelh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And the kids, Dipper's little army of fans between the ages of four and forty, they all run about, finding clues all over the world, and it marks out the pattern of a six-fingered hand. When Ford figures this out, Stanley takes his hand and <em>grips</em>, grounding him to reality and stopping the impulse to get <em>up</em> and get <em>to the kitchen</em> and <em>drink</em> until everything that makes his chest close up and his eyes close in and it all seems manageable. Because he can't do that now, Stanley said, Dipper said, Mabel said.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Somewhere (somewhere in the woods)

When Dipper had made a cartoon out of his and Mabel’s childhood in Gravity Falls, they had not been expecting the love and attention it got from its audience.

He hadn’t really bothered to change Bill much from his original appearance after consulting with Ford, who had shrugged and said that it should be fine, so Dipper took the demon that haunted his nightmares and made it into coloured-in lines that looked like they moved, which was a lot less threatening than a giant flesh triangle pinning you under rubble and knowing that it was all your own foolishness and desperation and being helpless to do anything but hope that Dipper will be okay.

But anyway.

Ford doesn’t really remember telling Dipper that it was fine to use Bill in a cartoon, but after a lot of thinking, Sober Ford really had to agree with Drunk Ford on that account. There was nothing bad that could come from Bill’s image being used, as a one-eyed triangle was and will always be a symbol of _something_ somewhere or other. And it was kind of a joke thing, to be honest, because some kind of all-seeing, all-knowing triangle is hilarious to most kids. When he’s drunk enough, Ford can see the humour in it himself, kind of.

And here’s the thing. Somehow, twenty years after all of the bullshit that he went through with Stanley and Dipper and Mabel and somehow came out stronger for, somehow word got out about a stone statue of Bill. Somewhere, somewhere in the woods. Which yeah, it would have been harmless normally, because the likelihood of someone looking for and finding it is only marginally higher than somebody stumbling upon it.

But something happens. On one of those new websites that the youth today use, an account posts an image. Something weird, something relating to Dipper’s show and Bill’s statue, and giving a hint to another clue.

Ford decodes it in seconds, of course. He may have trembling hands and occasional seizures, but his mind is still as sharp as ever! Hopefully.

And the kids, Dipper’s little army of fans between the ages of four and forty, they all run about, finding clues all over the world, and it marks out the pattern of a six-fingered hand. When Ford figures this out, Stanley takes his hand and _grips_ , grounding him to reality and stopping the impulse to get _up_ and get _to the kitchen_ and _drink_ until everything that makes his chest close up and his eyes close in all seems manageable. Because he can’t do that now, Stanley said, Dipper said, Mabel said.

And there are so many clues, and when Ford compares the map of _Places Stan And I Went To On The Stan O’ War II_ and the map of _Places Where Stupid Kids Have Found Clues_ , so many of them line up, even if they stopped taking the boat out a decade ago after Stan finally got sick of stopping his twin from jumping off the side or whatever stellar idea Drunk Ford had this time and took Ford to hospital so they can figure out a way to stop this mess that you're in, Ford, you're scaring me, and I know it's about you and not me but you're scaring me, this isn't good for you, please, Ford, just _try_.

Ford shakes his head.

That’s not what this is about.

Because this is about the fact that the final clue has led to Gravity Falls, Roadkill County, Oregon, and Ford knows that it’s the final clue because he found the statue years ago after wandering through the forest in a state of suicidal melodrama. He had curled up under its outstretched arm and pretended that Bill had slung a hand over his shoulder and was saying something about how he needs to cheer up, smart stuff, things almost never go right on the first try, and here with your brains and my inspiration, we can do anything! And Ford wants to go back to then. Ford wants to go back to being manipulated, like a marionette with strings that are being tugged on so that he does a precise little jig, exactly how Bill wants. Somewhere in his brain, he misses feeling Bill, like his thoughts are rocks on a pebble beach and Bill can sift and slip between and through them like sea water; infinite and sustaining and incomprehensible.

That being said, he did try to break its arm after crying for a while. But the thing didn’t budge, even when Ford took a blaster cannon to it, which was obviously a good idea. After a while, Mabel had shown up, and she had somehow carried him and all of his equipment back home. What does that kid _eat_? Well, woman, because she’s in her thirties now, and Ford is in his eighties and there is no way that he can destroy that statue.

But he can try to stop Bill from hurting anyone ever again.

So he sits in front of the statue, and he waits, and he wishes that Stanley would show up because Stanley makes everything better but he never does, and he sleeps under the stars and he wakes up looking like a madman.

And when the first few people come along, he grasps their wrists, begs them to leave and not to touch the statue; not to shake its hand. And they laugh, because he, Ford, he is a crazy old man and he always has been, and they shake the statue’s hand and laugh about causing the apocalypse, because wouldn’t that be funny? And Ford yells, or makes some other kind of broken noise like a dying dog, and nothing happens, and the people look disappointed, and they walk away after taking a load of pictures, and Ford wants to cry until Mabel finds him again, because she will always find him, and she will always find Dipper and Stanley and everyone that she loves, and she carries Ford home with even more ease than last time, and tucks him into bed, and holds his hand when he starts twitching for a drink because it’s been so long; just one; just let him get out of his head.

And at some point, Ford falls asleep, Mabel at his side, still in his clothes, still on top of the bedsheets.

And ten hours later, he wakes up alone.

And the sky is yellow, orange, purple, red, and Bill asks-

DID YA MISS ME?

**Author's Note:**

> IT'S LITERALLY FOUR PM WHY CIPHERH UNT


End file.
